Connolly: Heads may roll today

[spiritof66]

20 minutes ago, LookitsPuck said:

Gentry is a perfectly capable backup OF'er and PR. 

My point isn't to bash Gentry, per se. It's to paint the picture that Duquette has actually hurt the farm system since coming on board so poorly that the only position player/prospect to come up recently and contribute somewhat meaningfully has been Trey Mancini.

We can talk about injuries until the cows come home. But point of the matter is that Schoop and Trumbo were hurt. That still doesn't excuse the extreme lack of depth and the poor signings by Duquette.

Other than that, the acquisitions by Dan Duquette have all been DH types. His strategy has always been cheap homers...defense be damned. This is *not* a Brady or Buck strategy. Just look at most of the position player acquisitions (whether they be from trade, Rule V or free agency)....and you tell me what strategy Dan Duquette has. 

It's not OBP.

It's not defense.

It's not speed.

Homers, homers, homers. 

What HR-oriented, no-defense acquisitions are you talking about, and why do you believe they were acquisitions that Duquette decided on? The drafting under Duquette does not seem to me to be HR-oriented.

Why do you conclude that emphasizing HRs at the cost of defense is not a Brady or Buck strategy? What is their strategy as reflected in player acquisition? If they were instrumental in the Davis and Trumbo signings -- as  has been reported, though I don't know what  really happened -- that would suggest a willingness to invest heavily in one-dimensional sluggers.

I'm not disagreeing with you any of this, just looking for facts that support your position, which you seem to believe pretty strongly but for which I don't immediately see support. 

[Mondo Trasho]

Most of the time when you fire someone, it's a show of force. It's a way to let everyone on the team know that there are consequences to not making your goals. It's to cure complacency.

The problem for the O's unfortunately is not complacency. It's that they reached the end of their run and it's time to reload/rebuild. That requires a change from the top which isn't going to happen no matter who they fire.

Buck and Dan are almost certainly gone after the season, and perhaps one or both will be gone before then. I don't necessarily disagree with that, but I don't know that it'll solve anything either.

[wildbillhiccup]

18 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

What offensive prospect did he trade away that would have helped this team. Maybe I missed something.

You haven't. The answer is none. 

[Aristotelian]

Biggest surprise in that article is the quote to the effect that Buck is virtually guaranteed a job in 2019 if he wants it, and the thinking is that he still wants to manage in Baltimore. That is shocking to me, both that the Orioles still want him, and that he wants to stay.

We can all speculate as to what that says about the relative power of Buck and DD within the organization. 

[PaulFolk]

34 minutes ago, Going Underground said:

At least if Coolbaugh gets fired .Brady gets into place the hitting coach he hired.

The Orioles vice president of baseball operations reached out to Quinn when there was an opening.

 

http://www.nbcsports.com/washington/balitmore-orioles/brady-anderson-influenced-new-assistant-hitting-coach

Quinn left the Orioles two years ago. That article is from Jan. 2016.

[PaulFolk]

36 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

What offensive prospect did he trade away that would have helped this team. Maybe I missed something.

Does Nicky Delmonico count?

[wildcard]

1 hour ago, PaulFolk said:

Does Nicky Delmonico count?

Probably has much as Derek Fisher.

[LookitsPuck]

29 minutes ago, spiritof66 said:

What HR-oriented, no-defense acquisitions are you talking about, and why do you believe they were acquisitions that Duquette decided on? The drafting under Duquette does not seem to me to be HR-oriented.

Why do you conclude that emphasizing HRs at the cost of defense is not a Brady or Buck strategy? What is their strategy as reflected in player acquisition? If they were instrumental in the Davis and Trumbo signings -- as  has been reported, though I don't know what  really happened -- that would suggest a willingness to invest heavily in one-dimensional sluggers.

I'm not disagreeing with you any of this, just looking for facts that support your position, which you seem to believe pretty strongly but for which I don't immediately see support. 

Look at the totality of Duquette's tenure with the O's from 2012 to 2018. And let's look at what the strategy has been. It's been essentially Earl Weaver w/ a bullpen and a mediocre pitching staff. Although instead of 3 run homers, they end up being 1 or 2 run homers because the team simply doesn't get on base.

FWIW, I'm not insinuating that Duquette's been drafting HR only players. I'm simply saying his drafting skills has left much to be desired. 

I'm more or less talking about the major league club because it's been clear as day that Duquette has been rather myopic. He's focused entirely on the now...the future be damned. This is something that his detractors (myself included) have been saying for years.

If we talk about 1 dimensional players with the O's. Just in recent memory it's been Pedro Alvarez, Danny Valencia, Hyun Soo Kim, Mark Trumbo, Seth Smith, Drew Stubbs, Tim Beckham (although he's traditional been an average defender, but his offensive game is largely strikeouts and homers), etc.

Now the reason why? Probably because homers are cheap and so are 1 dimensional players. 

I've always taken Duquette's strategy at bullpens, average starting pitching and home runs. It's largely worked in the past because most of the core was young and at least defense was average or slightly above. But now we're seeing a poor bullpen, below average starting pitching, an aging core built entirely on homers and a severe lack of depth in the minors when 2 players were hurt (Trumbo and Schoop)...although add Beckham to it recently.

[Babypowder]

I don't even want the team to improve this year at this point. They're going to be bad, so be all the way bad. Shop everyone who isn't nailed down. Play people out of position all season. I don't care. It will be pure comedy plus a better draft pick. What fun is a 70 win team? A 50 win team is way more fun.

[LookitsPuck]

27 minutes ago, wildbillhiccup said:

You haven't. The answer is none. 

It's also something I never said. 

But you have to be delusional to think that Duquette hasn't traded away the farm for short term success all the while drafting and developing poorly. And sacrificing team flexibility due to his infatuation with Rule V picks. :shrug:

[theocean]

22 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

Biggest surprise in that article is the quote to the effect that Buck is virtually guaranteed a job in 2019 if he wants it, and the thinking is that he still wants to manage in Baltimore. That is shocking to me, both that the Orioles still want him, and that he wants to stay.

We can all speculate as to what that says about the relative power of Buck and DD within the organization. 

I think a lot of the news you are hearing is speculative. Rosenthal definitely has connections in the Orioles Front Office - but the situation is likely very fluid.

A lot of times rumors or speculation gets repeated so much on this board it becomes "fact." I think a lot of what happens depends on how much Peter stays involved and how much autonomy the Angelos sons have over the next few months. That's really anyone's guess right now - maybe even for the Angelos family themselves.

 

[Tony-OH]

1 hour ago, LookitsPuck said:

Who else is batting 4th if not Davis? That's my point. 2/3 of the position players are batting under or near .200 and have OPS's well under .600. So basically who do you have more faith to be a productive hitter? Chris Davis or the Gentry/Santander/Valencia/Alvarez/Joseph/Sisco/etc. of the world?

Anyone who is not the worse hitter in the league.True the entire team is hitting bad besides Manny, but you don't put the automatic out behind him.

1 hour ago, LookitsPuck said:

Who signed Gentry? 

Who continues to play the Rule V draft like it's a replacement for free agency?

Who continues to sign platoon players who are essentially DHs year in and year out?

Not Brady. 

You are right because Brady doesn't want to do that role. Brady likes to be the guy that makes the big decisions, but doesn't want the nuts and bolts part of the GM job.

1 hour ago, LookitsPuck said:

That's my point.

And to add to my point: who in the minors can be called up to replace better than the above and be standouts defensively? 

And therein lies the rub. The minors are largely barren of impact positional players. Especially ones that are ready. And that is 100% on Dan Duquette.

Hays, Stewart, Mullens and Mountcastle are all players who could have good major league careers. Even so, Duquette doesn't draft and develop the players. He's only given away his first round pick once in a draft. To claim the system is bare ad it;s because of Duquette is dishonest or uninformed.

He hasn't been perfect, and he's done some things that as far as I know he was behind that I would not have done, but remember, he's one of the architects of this team, and although I too believe he gets too many of the same kinds of offensive players, the overall structure on how the team is run makes it very hard to have a cohesive look at the team.

1 hour ago, LookitsPuck said:

Fin.

 

[LookitsPuck]

Hays, Stewart, Mullins and Mountcastle.

Mountcastle is about as 1 dimensional as they come. He's got DH written all over him. 

Mullins I'm bearish on. I like the defense and the speed. I do question whether he'd hit enough be a full time OFer. 

I like Hays.

Stewart I'm not sold at all on.

And there-in lies the rub. Teams like the Yankees have so much youth all over the place. And yes, they can actually participate internationally more-so than Duquette. That's my biggest rub w/ Angelos.

Anyways, back on track. I think people here are giving too much "blame/credit" to Brady and not nearly enough to Duquette. I'm not going to sit here and say that this is 100% on Duquette. You can see my other thread responses on it. But I think the majority is on him.

He mortgaged the future for the now and now the chickens are coming home to roost. 

[Going Underground]

28 minutes ago, PaulFolk said:

Quinn left the Orioles two years ago. That article is from Jan. 2016.

I thought he was still a coach .My bad,I forgot they hired Howie Clark.I negative rep myself.

[SeaBird]

Last season the Orioles finished in last place 18 games behind.  They ended the season with a 5 game losing streak and lost 8 of their last 10.  They had only 2 months of winning  baseball; April and August. 

The 8-26 start this year continues the trend and shows them 17 games out with a current losing streak of 6 in a row and 2 wins in their last 10.  That is just bad baseball for way too long.  They now rank at # 30 in the latest MLB Power Rankings and almost 25% of the season is gone.  I'm tired of watching Showalter say,, "We're better than this" on the Post Game Interview with Thorne.  No.  They are not better than this.  Send a message to the players; shake it up and send him packing.